


deepest darkest peru

by chasing_the_sterek



Category: Sherlock (TV)
Genre: 221B Ficlet, Character Study, Childhood Memories, Close enough anyway - Freeform, Companion Piece, Exploring, Gen, Kid John, Kid John Watson, but - Freeform, not really ship since it's a kidfic and sherlock is barely in it, there ya go, those fun little explorer safari hat things where did THEY go
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-13
Updated: 2019-08-13
Packaged: 2020-08-21 00:02:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 220
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20236564
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chasing_the_sterek/pseuds/chasing_the_sterek
Summary: When John is six, he wants to be an explorer.





	deepest darkest peru

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Anarion](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Anarion/gifts).
  * Inspired by [221b - Come find me in the rain](https://archiveofourown.org/works/19916053) by [Anarion](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Anarion/pseuds/Anarion). 

> This is a companion piece to Anarion's _Come And Find Me In The Rain, _which is adorable on many levels. This can stand alone, though!
> 
> Title is a reference to Paddington which didn't manage to survive the cut down for wordcount but is absolutely still there in spirit.

When John is six, he wants to be an explorer.

Everything he does involves a _discovery._ He steals a tan shirt from his Dad and goes off into the woods behind the house, where he discovers newts in the ponds and mushrooms amongst the tree roots. He gets a hat for his birthday, a proper safari one like they have on TV, and it’s the best thing in the world. His mum still has it, somewhere, he thinks, though it’d hardly fit him now.

What he loves the most is the different lands explorers go to. He climbs up to the tops of the trees and uses his imagination to change the view of the treetops to the steaming hills of a jungle, and then slips down the trunk and hunkers on the lowest branches, watching bears lumbering past underneath him.

He and Harry grow up, but it’s still this desire to explore which helps make his decision to join the army and ship out to Afghanistan: there, he gets a tactical helmet that’s similar enough to make him smile, and he explores things that his seven year-old self could never dream up.

He worries that London will be boring, but eventually he finds that there’s plenty more to explore - and someone to explore it _with,_ which is even better.


End file.
